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Amyloid β (Aβ) peptide aggregates are linked to Alzheimer's disease (AD). Posttranslationally pyroglutamylated Aβ (pEAβ) occurs in AD brains in significant quantities and is hypertoxic, but the underlying structural and aggregation properties remain poorly understood. Here, the structure and aggregation of Aβ1-40 and pEAβ3-40 are analyzed separately and in equimolar combination. Circular dichroism data show that Aβ1-40 , pEAβ3-40 , and their combination assume α-helical structure in dry state and transition to unordered structure in aqueous buffer. Aβ1-40 and the 1:1 combination gradually acquire β-sheet structure while pEAβ3-40 adopts an α-helix/β-sheet conformation. Thioflavin-T fluorescence studies suggest that the two peptides mutually inhibit fibrillogenesis. Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy identifies the presence of β-turn and α-helical structures in addition to β-sheet structure in peptides in aqueous buffer. The kinetics of transitions from the initial α-helical structure to β-sheet structure were resolved by slow hydration of dry peptides by D2 O vapor, coupled with isotope-edited FTIR. These data confirmed the mutual suppression of β-sheet formation by the two peptides. Remarkably, pEAβ3-40 maintained a significant fraction of α-helical structure in the combined sample, implying a reduced β-sheet propensity of pEAβ3-40 . Altogether, the data imply that the combination of unmodified and pyroglutamylated Aβ peptides resists fibrillogenesis and favors the prefibrillar state, which may underlie hypertoxicity of pEAβ.

Phishing attacks are the most common form of attacks that can happen over the internet. This method involves attackers attempting to collect data of a user without his/her consent through emails, URLs, and any other link that leads to a deceptive page where a user is persuaded to commit specific actions that can lead to the successful completion of an attack. These attacks can allow an attacker to collect vital information of the user that can often allow the attacker to impersonate the victim and get things done that only the victim should have been able to do, such as carry out transactions, or message someone else, or simply accessing the victim's data. Many studies have been carried out to discuss possible approaches to prevent such attacks. This research work includes three machine learning algorithms to predict any websites' phishing status. In the experimentation these models are trained using URL based features and attempted to prevent Zero-Day attacks by using proposed software proposal that differentiates the legitimate websites and phishing websites by analyzing the website's URL. From observations, the random forest classifier performed with a precision of 97%, a recall 99%, and F1 Score is 97%. Proposed model is fast and efficient as it only works based on the URL and it does not use other resources for analysis, as was the case for past studies.

Health monitoring is considered for the maintenance of the various industrial systems. The machine condition monitoring is necessary to predict any functional abnormality and to timely perform the necessary maintenance activities. In this paper, internet of things (IoT) based system is designed for the electrical motor. The electrical motor health is monitored by measuring the parameters such as vibration, current and temperature. It can be measured through the sensors, like accelerometer, current sensor and thermocouple. The signals of these sensors are sent to the webserver through Wi-Fi module where it can be accessible to the receiver in any part of the globe where the internet is available. To avoid the limitation of the internet, the signals of these sensors were also sent to the receiver through global system for mobile (GSM) because it can also work in the areas where the internet is not available. The sensors are attached to the microcontroller and the microcontroller is programmed to get the required results. The signals coming from the sensor were also analyzed through DAQ card. These signals are monitored and are used to identify the fault in the electric motor.

Bearing diversified natural resources, the Sundarbans mangrove forests (SMF) are, to a large extent, considered a thrust area of ecological and economic importance to which a number of public bureaucracies in Bangladesh give due attention to managing its resources. This paper analyses the extensive policy conflicts of different bureaucracies that prevail for the Sundarbans management practices on emerging issues. All the mangrove forest policies—both directives and projects pursued by multiple administrations in the Sundarbans—are scrutinized taking off in bureaucratic theory. The empirical relevance of this policy development concept is demonstrated based on data from the Government of Bangladesh. As empirical methods, first, the content analyses of various acts, rules, policy documents, missions, mandates, and development initiatives of relevant ministries and public agencies were conducted to distinguish the activities linked with actors’ interests in present practices. Subsequently, the presumed bureaucratic competition was critically analyzed deploying exchange on participating observation. The study observes that being the officially responsible bureaucracy for the Sundarbans, the Bangladesh Forest Department has the leading approach to managing the SMF while receiving guidance from the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change. The position of the Forest Department is empowered by the existing laws and rules, although the observed approach has been integrated because of multiple bureaucracies being involved in different sectors of Sundarbans for their due interests. Other bureaucracies use their institutional expertise in respective sectors, resulting in an exceptionally high degree of bureaucratic rivalry. Mangrove forest bureaucracy is currently facing challenges in technical capacities, financial resources, and institutional arrangements addressing the effective management of the Sundarbans. Administrative structures for complex landscapes, such as mangrove forests, pose substantial challenges to common bureaucratic structures, which recommends establishing integrated approach, for sharing equitable responsibilities and benefits. Still, the underlying conflicts of interests would prevail, but they can be proactively addressed through rules and procedures within the integration.

Protein disulfide isomerase (PDI) is mainly located in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) but is also secreted into the bloodstream where its oxidoreductase activity is involved with thrombus formation. Quercetin-3-rutinoside (Q3R) blocks this activity, but its inhibitory mechanism against PDI is not fully understood. Here, we examined the potential inhibitory effect of Q3R on another process that requires PDI: disassembly of the multimeric cholera toxin (CT). In the ER, PDI physically displaces the reduced CTA1 subunit from its non-covalent assembly in the CT holotoxin. This is followed by CTA1 dislocation from the ER to the cytosol where the toxin interacts with its G protein target for a cytopathic effect. Q3R blocked the conformational change in PDI that accompanies its binding to CTA1, which, in turn, prevented PDI from displacing CTA1 from its holotoxin and generated a toxin-resistant phenotype. Other steps of the CT intoxication process were not affected by Q3R, including PDI binding to CTA1 and CT reduction by PDI. Additional experiments with the B chain of ricin toxin found that Q3R could also disrupt PDI function through the loss of substrate binding. Q3R can thus inhibit PDI function through distinct mechanisms in a substrate-dependent manner.

The growth of microcredit has been widely acknowledged, and it possesses significant potential for alleviating poverty. In microcredit functioning, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) intend to utilize available resources for facilitating poor people’s income-generating activities. Theory affirms that donors-NGO relationships mostly depend on informal interests apart from implementing formal development programs. In practice, NGOs tendency evolves for growing financial self-reliance over time with microcredit expansion. Donors assume and admit NGOs’ functions and rely only on financial statements and performance reports rather than on-field activities. There is a considerable debate whether the donors’ formal and informal interests drive the microcredit system, even though agreements exist with NGOs for running development projects in their respective localities. This paper examines the causes of microcredit expansion, with the aim of finding any causal link, if present, between the independent variables—local people’s financial status and available financial support from the NGOs—and the dependent variable, microcredit expansion. Considering the ecological and socio-economic importance of the Sundarbans Mangrove Forest (SMF), the activities of an NGO close to it are the focus of this study since local people’s livelihoods depend largely on the SMF’s natural resources. Following a qualitative research approach with quantitative elements, content analysis of the on-field collected documents about microcredit and projects of the selected NGO were carried out. Information on organizational interests were extracted following informal open-ended interview with the NGO officials and local borrowers. The results indicate that the expansion of microcredit depends on its high demand due to the local people’s economic condition and the availability of financing sources. The analysis observes that the financing from donors and government sources acts informally as seed money for microcredit operations, which have established long-term expansion through handling large contributory funds from borrowers’ savings. Although donors’ formal interests are promoting local people’s alternative income-generating activities beyond the resources of the SMF, donors acknowledge microcredit expansion as part of their informal interest in carrying out future activities with the local NGOs. Since the dependency of NGOs’ activities on donors’ priorities is evident, it would be worthwhile to study further how NGOs’ policy interests are reshaped in sustaining microcredit businesses by the changing funding preferences of donors.

Mangrove forests have enormous ecological and socio-economic importance for a number of different stakeholders and policy actors. Hence, a wide range of often conflicting material interests can be expected surrounding mangrove forest policy and management. These conflicts result in different issues of mangrove policy and management, on which different actors articulate their positions through publicly stated claims. It is unclear, in how far these publicly stated positions and claims resemble the formal interest of the actors only, or if they also reveal parts of their informal interests. In the Sundarbans mangrove forests, a number of issues have arisen, which are of contemporary policy concern. The aim of this study is to identify the most recent issues relating to the Sundarbans in Bangladesh and analyse the actors' claims/arguments on the identified issues which were publicly stated as an expression of formal or informal interest. In order to analyse these public claims, content analysis of selected Bangladeshi national newspapers, experts' deliberations and national policy documents was undertaken as an empirical method to ascertain relevant issues and actors' claims. A theory-based actor typology was applied to distinguish the relevant actors, and the concept of formal and informal interests was employed. The results indicate that the most salient policy issues around mangrove forest policy and management are: establishing Rampal power plant; protection of the Sundarbans forest area; environmental pollution; biodiversity conservation; reputation as a World Natural Heritage Site; relevance for climate change adaptation and mitigation; and local people's livelihoods. Government and Administration are found to be the most active actor in all the observed issues. Surprisingly, only very few administrations partake in public deliberations and the Prime Minister seems to dominate the public debate. This might be explained by the fact that the Rampal power plant project is perceived as the most contentious issue among all actors, with strong discursive support from the Prime Minister. In light of this issue structure, non-governmental actors as well as most bureaucracies are rarely found to actively engage in public debate on mangrove issues while informal interests were being displayed by Prime Minister and non-ruling political parties to a limited extent. Future empirical study to be conducted on the historical trajectory of Rampal power plant addressing the Prime Minister's arguments and environmental concerns of civil society actors. Also it would be worth to map the high degree of bureaucratic rivalry which can be assumed form the conflicting interest in mangrove forests between the responsible ministry—the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEFCC) and other ministries in their struggle for power.

This paper represents an approach to observe the physic-chemical effects of titanium dioxide (TiO2) applied on 100% cotton woven fabric. Cotton fabric was treated with TiO2 by exhaustion method and followed by necessary curing and washing processes. The treated fabrics were then analyzed by Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) and the tensile strength, pH and absorbency of the treated and untreated fabrics were examined. It was found that titanium dioxide impairs the hand feel and absorbency of 100% cotton woven fabrics, wetting time of all treated fabrics increased gradually than untreated fabrics. The treatment increases the tensile strength of 100% cotton woven fabrics. The treatment with titanium dioxide also kept the pH of the fabric in acidic medium.

This paper represents an approach to observe the physico-chemical effects of titanium dioxide (TiO2) applied on 100% cotton woven fabric. Cotton fabric was treated with TiO2 by exhaustion method and followed by necessary curing and washing processes. The treated fabrics were then analyzed by Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) and the tensile strength, pH and absorbency of the treated and untreated fabrics were examined. It was found that titanium dioxide impairs the hand feel and absorbency of 100% cotton woven fabrics, wetting time of all treated fabrics increased gradually than untreated fabrics. The treatment increases the tensile strength of 100% cotton woven fabrics. The treatment with titanium dioxide also kept the pH of the fabric in acidic medium.